The New Blood
by CMDR-Lane
Summary: NBS hires a new cast member for the show, and tensions rise with Harriet because he is openly gay.
1. Chapter 1

The New Blood 

_**Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip**_

_**Monday**_

Jordan McDeere sighed as she sat in her Mercedes on the San Diego Freeway. She was headed towards the NBS building on a Monday morning in the middle of rush hour traffic. She looked down at her speedometer, which was displaying a large digital 0. Her treo started ringing, and she fished for it in her purse.

"Jordan McDeere." She answered it.

_"Where the hell are you?"_ Jordan smiled.

"Why good morning Jack."

_"I need you here, people are asking me questions about that damn Nations show, as if I know what I'm talking about!"_

"I know the feeling. Tell them to keep their pants on, Ill be there as soon as possible, I'm stuck on the San Diego Freeway. I think there was a wreck up there or something because-"

_"Yeah that's nice. Come to my office when you get here."_ A sharp click followed his abrupt sentence.

"He's more pissed than normal…" Jordan said to herself as she dropped her treo into a cup holder. "Now if we could just move up enough for me to get to the next exit!" She yelled out the window.

"Sucks, don't it?" A young man said from the opened window of his SUV in the lane to the left of her.

"It most definitely does. My fiancé told me not to take the freeway this morning, and what did I do?"

"You took the freeway this morning." He smiled and laughed.

Jordan stared at him for a moment, for she had seen him before and was trying to place him. He must have noticed because he spoke up.

"I was on Big Brother a few seasons ago." He said out his window. She snapped her fingers.

"I knew I had seen you before!"

"You look familiar too… hey aren't you Jordan McDeere, the new president of NBS? I saw you on Access Hollywood a few days ago."

"Guilty as charged… on a few counts." She replied to him with a smirk.

"Hey I understand about being guilty, I was nailed by my agent who found out about my underground gay porn shots. I thought he was going to shoot me."

Jordan raised her eyebrows. "But you pulled through, right?"

"No, I haven't worked in six months." He replied, dryly.

"Ah… well that sucks." Her car dinged suddenly, and she glanced down to her dashboard. The temperature dial was sitting on the red mark. "Oh shoot! I haven't gotten my vehicle serviced in forever!" She said to herself. She turned over to her new friend in the SUV. "You wouldn't happen to have some engine coolant in the back of that thing would you?" He raised his eyebrows.

"As a matter of fact I think I do." He said, and put his vehicle in park.

"Really?" She was shocked.

"Sure do. You need some?"

"Yeah, my vehicle is about to overheat. I haven't gotten it serviced in a long time."

"Well pop your hood, I'll pour it in for you." He said. She did, and got out of the car to raise the hood up. The vehicle behind her honked. She turned to the driver.

"Do you see the traffic in front of me moving? No, you don't. So shush!" She turned to the young man who was pouring the coolant into her engine. "I'm sorry, I can't remember your name."

"I'm sorry, I don't think I ever told you. Chase… Chase Manhattan."

"Manhattan like, New York?"

"Yep, same one."

"So, Chase, you are a gay porn star, have been on television before, and know how to put coolant in a Mercedes."

"That about sums it up." He said with a smile. He put the cap back on the tank and slammed the hood down.

"How old are you?"

"Twenty-two, why?"

Before she could answer, the vehicles in front of them started to move.

"Take the Sunset exit, and meet me at the NBS building. Ill call security and tell them to expect you at the lot."

"Why?"

"Because, I might just have a job for you."

Hope you enjoy this. I'm going to be working on it on and off.

Please Review!!!!


	2. Chapter 2

_**Monday Afternoon**_

"…and this is Harriet Hayes." Matt stopped at Harriet and smiled, then turned back to Chase Manhattan. They were standing in the lounge in the theatre, and he had just introduced Chase to the crew. "Chase will be with us this week, learning how things work. The network thinks he would be a good addition to the show, and after this week as an evaluation period, Danny and I will make the decision. So let's show him all the love we have in our big Hollywood hearts."

"It's great to meet all of you." Chase smiled to them, as Matt and Danny headed up to Matts office.

"Dude, I gotta ask you something." Tom Jeter started, as he walked up to Chase and put his arm around him. "Chase Manhattan? Isn't that the name of a credit card?"

Chase smiled, pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, and removed his credit card. "You got it. And the funny thing is that I use Chase credit cards. They thought I was shitting them when I registered for the card."

"That's wicked!" Tom replied as he examined the card, and handed it back. Simon walked up to them, and shook hands with Chase.

"It's nice to meet you. You must be pretty talented; we haven't gotten a newcomer to the show in quite a while."

"To be honest with you, I'm not too sure what Jordan saw in me." Chase started his reply as he sat down on a couch on the set. Harriet, Tom, Simon, Alex, and Jeannie gathered around. "I've only been on TV once, and that was on Big Brother. After that I decided I wanted to be a TV star, I fell in love with the cameras and attention."

"Know what you mean." Simon replied with a smile. "So what happened? They said you haven't worked in a while."

"Well, I was busted for some underground gay porn model shoots. Spread like a wildfire, and my agent dumped me."

Suddenly there was an amount of tension in the room. A few eyes shifted from Chase to Harriet. Tom and Simon exchanged glances and stood up quickly.

"How about a tour of the theatre? Simon and I can show you around." Tom changed the subject as fast as he could. Chase stood up with them, and smiled at Harriet.

"I'd love that."

--

"Do we really need a new cast member?" Matt asked Danny as they went up the spiral staircase heading towards his office.

"Ah I don't know. Jordan just met this kid on the freeway this morning."

"Really? Wait… how does that work?"

"She ran out of coolant… it doesn't matter. What do we have so far?" Danny asked as they walked into the office.

"Oh I don't know." Matt replied as he stared at the countdown clock on the wall. "Wait, are we writing credit card boy into the show this week?"

"I wasn't planning on it. Hell, I don't even know if he can act. Think you can throw together some pages for him to do on camera by tomorrow?"

"Of what?"

"I don't know. We could do a sketch about his name and the credit card company."

"You know we are gonna piss him off calling him credit card boy all the time." Matt said as he crashed into his chair.

"Well don't call him that."

"But its funny."

"I know its funny but its only going to be funny for the first… why the hell are we still talking about this? Don't you have a show to write?" Danny said loudly as he started walking towards the door.

"Nah, its only Monday. You know nothing happens here on Mondays." Matt replied as he slapped his keyboard to make the computer wake up.

"Well make something happen. Because that's what they pay us for you know."

"Do they also pay you to prance around like a little bitch?" Matt smiled from ear to ear as Danny walked out of the room.

"You better be glad I'm out of that office!" Danny shouted as he continued to walk down the hall.

--

_"You listen to me Rudolph. We are sick of the negative media this woman is putting on us. The board has voted and we want McDeere out. You have until Friday to have her removed." _Jack held the phone away from his face and cussed under his breath.

"You aren't getting the entire picture! Jordan is doing an excellent job here! She has already created a new fall line-up that beats anything-"

_"We have already made up our minds on this Jack. It's going to take an act of God to save her now."_ The phone clicked loudly in Jacks ear.

"Damnit." Jack said softly, as he put the phone back onto its hook. He sat there in his office thinking to himself, when he looked up at the TV on the other side of the office. The bottom headline read _four car accident on San Diego Freeway_. He broke himself out of his thoughts and un-muted the TV.

_"…this morning at approximately eight-thirty a.m.," _the news anchor was saying, _"The driver of a silver Nissan merged into another car right after the Wilshire Boulevard onramp heading north bound. The LAPD report that two other vehicles were involved in the accident, causing all north bound lanes to be blocked for about forty-five minutes. There was one fatality, and several others injured."_

"Huh." Jack muttered, as he reached for the remote to re-mute the TV. The anchor stopped for a moment, and put his hand over his earpiece. Jack stopped when the anchor spoke up.

_"We have just received word that the Ryan Mulrooney, the ex-husband of NBS president Jordan McDeere, was involved in the accident. No word yet on his condition."_

Jack stared at the TV for a second. "There is your act of God." He muttered, and picked up his phone.


End file.
